Indian Country Today Media Network.com - Iraqhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/tags/iraq
enLessons of History: States, Peoples, Soilhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/01/04/lessons-history-states-peoples-soil
<fieldset class="field-group-fieldset group-opinions-body form-wrapper" id="node_opinion_rss_group_opinions_body"><legend><span class="fieldset-legend">Body</span></legend><div class="fieldset-wrapper"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">In a recent </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/24/battle-sangin-military-lessons-local-realities-afghanistan" style="line-height:1.6em;">column </a><span style="line-height:1.6em;">in </span><em style="line-height:1.6em;">The Guardian</em><span style="line-height:1.6em;">, British Major-General Jonathan Shaw explored lessons to be learned from "well-meaning but misguided" Western military efforts in Afghanistan. Shaw asked a question perplexing many commentators: How can "the Taliban [be] reemerging after all the violence that has been brought to bear against it since 2011?"</span></p>
<p>Shaw approached the question from experience. He was commander of allied forces in Basra in 2007 and now chairman of <a href="http://optimagroup.co">Optima Group</a>, "a global provider of counter-improvised explosive device (C-IED) and search capabilities."</p>
<p>Shaw's answer to the question went well beyond standard media comment and looked at root issues. "Our incomprehension about current events," Shaw said, "is fuelled by our ignorance of the culture, the political soil of Afghanistan (and of Syria, Libya and Iraq)."</p>
<p>But, Shaw added, the ignorance goes deeper and lies closer to home: ignorance of foreign cultures "starts with an ignorance about the fragility and the contingent nature of our own systems." In other words, those who are perplexed about Afghanistan and the Taliban—not to mention the Islamic State and other groups—don't understand either the "foreign" cultures or their own.</p>
<p>With Shaw's critique in mind, let's look at the rhetoric of the current American presidential primary campaigns, where several candidates are calling to promote "democracy" by bombing and invading other countries.</p>
<p>Neocon candidates try to outdo one another with demands for military force wherever they perceive it will appeal to voter fears, whether Iran or Iraq, Afghanistan or Russia, Syria or Libya. Ignorance of the histories of these countries doesn't get in the way of—even encourages—their calls for intervention.</p>
<p>But, as Shaw said, "Unless and until we understand the conflict we are looking at, we would be well advised to follow the Hippocratic oath to 'do no harm'." Shaw added, "Liberal democracy is a rare flower…the form of which differs even in its heartland of western Europe/America." He criticized the "neocon belief that [liberal democracy] is the natural condition for society."</p>
<p>Shaw looked at the history of western "state" government. He said, "We have lost sight of how the very concept of the 'state' is a western construct, enshrined in the treaty of Westphalia in 1648 to bring to an end the 30 years war in Europe."</p>
<p>Though Shaw did not discuss American Indian history, his recap of the history of 'state' systems illuminates the difficulties of using the notion of 'sovereignty' to describe American Indian self-determination. The notion of 'sovereignty' derives from the Westphalian idea of government as a top-down, unitary 'state' structure. Indian Nations never followed that model.</p>
<p>The "state" model of government may have solved problems among warring Christian European nations, but that form has also been used to undermine traditional Indigenous governments and impose neo-colonial governments on non-state peoples. The American 'state' deployed military and economic coercion to force Indians within the 'reservation' system, subject to over-arching 'state' sovereignty.</p>
<p>Shaw pointed to resistance to state boundaries in the Middle East: "In Syria, Libya and Afghanistan this notion [of 'state'] is under threat as warlords and insurgents vie for local power, ignoring our state boundaries."</p>
<p>Shaw did not explain the "our" in his phrase. It points to another historical agreement among Western European nations: The 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement—named after the British and French diplomats who put it together at the end of World War I.</p>
<p>Sykes-Picot emerged from secret negotiations between Britain and France (with Russia's consent) to divide Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire after the War. The negotiations created a map of "state boundaries" for Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan. These boundaries defined "spheres of influence" for British and French colonial projects. From the perspective of the colonists, the boundaries of those countries are "ours."</p>
<p>Ignorance of this colonial history in the Middle East underlies the surprise of observers—including candidates for the American presidency—who cannot comprehend where the Islamic State, the Taliban, and other quasi-governmental "terrorist groups" come from. They come from peoples whose own boundaries were ignored or violated by colonial states.</p>
<p>The participants in the current wars raging in the Mid-East have been fighting for a long time, among themselves, and with western colonial invaders and "patrons." The battle lines in the Mid-East are not new, only newly inflamed. But to understand this, one needs to know history. Therein lies the rub.</p>
<p>In America, people are legally entitled to voice an opinion about anything, without necessarily knowing anything. In fact, knowing something may actually get in the way of stating an opinion. This includes not only "foreign affairs," but also "domestic issues."</p>
<p>For example, listening to the presidential primary campaigns, one might believe Christianity was crucial to the oath of office.</p>
<p>The Constitution actually says religion has <em>no</em> role as a qualification for office. Here's Article Six: "The Senators and Representatives…and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; <em>but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.</em>"</p>
<p>What does the existence of widespread, complete misunderstanding of the Constitution and religion say about the prospects for American society? How can democracy function when gross ignorance of history and law masquerades as legitimate political discourse? It doesn't look promising.</p>
<p>The presidential primaries provide a window into the ongoing struggle for political dominance in the American state. With the exception of Bernie Sanders, the campaigns have so far provided little help for understanding domination itself.</p>
<p>By asking questions about the histories that shape our present circumstances, we may come to appreciate the value of studying history at all. Seeing the "contingent nature" of government helps us see the "fragility" of human society. Appreciating contingency and fragility can help us make skillful choices as we lay down a past for the future—for our children and grandchildren.</p>
<p>Shaw urges us to pay attention to "cultural soil." He says the "relevant portrayal" of Afghanistan today might be to see the Afghans "sorting out their own future, as they always were going to once we had stopped imposing ourselves; the Afghan soil reasserting itself."</p>
<p>Those words remind me of Luther Standing Bear, who said, "The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged...."</p>
<p>We can conclude as Shaw did, that the legacy of colonial violence "should, at least, not surprise us. At best, [it] should not happen again."</p>
<p><em>Peter d’Errico graduated from Yale Law School in 1968. He was Staff attorney in Dinebeiina Nahiilna Be Agaditahe Navajo Legal Services, 1968-1970, in Shiprock. He taught Legal Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1970-2002. He is a consulting attorney on indigenous issues.</em></p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Short title:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lessons of History: States, Peoples, Soi</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/government" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Government</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Politics</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/world-events-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">World Events</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-full-name field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Full name:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Peter d&#039;Errico</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/peter-derrico" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Peter d&#039;Errico</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/jonathan-shaw" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jonathan Shaw</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/syria" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Syria</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/libya" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Libya</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/iraq" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Iraq</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-story field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Story Cluster:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/story/peter-derrico" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Peter d&#039;Errico</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author-image field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Author image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/author/peter-d%27errico" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Peter d&#039;Errico</a></div></div></div>Mon, 04 Jan 2016 13:00:51 +0000mazecyrus162937 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/01/04/lessons-history-states-peoples-soil#commentsWorld Outrage as ISIS Bulldozes Sacred Site; UNESCO Denounces ‘War Crime’http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/03/06/world-outrage-isis-bulldozes-sacred-site-and-unesco-denounces-war-crime-159503
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>World outrage has erupted as members of the Islamic State group known as ISIS have allegedly bulldozed an ancient sacred site in northern Iraq after weeks of hacking hallowed artifacts to smithereens as they attempt to erase what they see as blasp</p></div></div></div>Sat, 07 Mar 2015 00:40:00 +0000theresa159503 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/03/06/world-outrage-isis-bulldozes-sacred-site-and-unesco-denounces-war-crime-159503#commentsUnfriendly Fire: The Fort Hood Shooter Trialhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/12/unfriendly-fire-fort-hood-shooter-trial
<fieldset class="field-group-fieldset group-opinions-body form-wrapper" id="node_opinion_rss_group_opinions_body"><legend><span class="fieldset-legend">Body</span></legend><div class="fieldset-wrapper"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Meanings vary when people repeat that things can be done “the right way, the wrong way, or the Army way.” The Army way may represent teamwork so instinctive that orders are not necessary. For most GIs, the Army way is the elevation of form over substance.</p>
<p>Today, I was gobsmacked by a particular elevation of form over substance being practiced before our eyes by the Army. The substance began on Nov. 5, 2009. My son was due back from his second tour in Iraq any day and the question in the family was whether he would be home for the holidays.</p>
<p>Where I live, Ft. Hood is covered by local media, so when Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan walked into the Soldier Readiness Processing Center and opened fire, I was probably paying attention before the firing stopped. Where was Paul? Iraq? Kuwait? Or was he in SRP, through which every soldier passes being deployed or coming home?</p>
<p>My son was not in SRP, but of those who were, 13 died. The victims were soldiers ranging in age from 21 to 56 and in rank from PFC to Lt. Colonel, as well as one civilian, 62 year old Michael Cahill, who died trying to stop the shooter. The youngest soldier killed, PFC Francheska Velez, was pregnant, and the fetus also died. Another 31 soldiers were wounded by gunfire, along with civilian police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who was wounded while exchanging gunfire with the shooter.</p>
<p>The shooter was seriously wounded in the gunfight with civilian police. While waiting for him to recover so he could be put on trial for mass murder, we learned that Maj. Hasan admired the teachings of Anwar al-Awlaki, the imam who had presided at his father’s funeral. Hasan and al-Awlaki had substantial email communication before the killings at Ft. Hood.</p>
<p>In March 2010, al-Awlaki released a statement complaining that the Obama administration was failing to credit him properly, saying in part:</p>
<p>"Until this moment the administration is refusing to release the e-mails exchanged between myself and Nidal. And after the operation of our brother Umar Farouk the initial comments coming from the administration were looking the same—another attempt at covering up the truth. But Al Qaeda cut off Obama from deceiving the world again by issuing their statement claiming responsibility for the operation.”</p>
<p>The “brother” referred to was Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, aka “the underwear bomber” because he was inspired by Al-Awlaki to attempt blowing up an airliner but succeeded only in lighting up his tidy whities.</p>
<p>A month later, to a chorus of criticism, Obama placed Al-Awaki on the CIA “kill list.”</p>
<p>The criticism fired up again when a CIA drone strike nailed him in September of 2011. When Al-Awaki was not directly counseling on how to kill Americans, he was editing Inspire, Al Qaeda’s English language organ where the Boston Marathon bombers allegedly read, “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.”</p>
<p>At the time of the drone strike, Al-Awaki was hiding in the lawless areas of Yemen and a Yemeni court had issued a warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges. Obama is supposed to have violated his rights by putting him on the “kill list,” but the way I read the law, a violent felon who poses a continuing danger and cannot be arrested can be killed. But I digress.</p>
<p>After Hasan became physically able to come to court, the first military judge assigned to the case elevated form over function by engaging in a six-month battle with a dead man over shaving his full fundamentalist Muslim beard.</p>
<p>Nidal Hasan is a dead man rolling, since he can no longer walk as a result of his gunshot wounds. Apparently proud of his “accomplishment, “ he wished to plead guilty, but the Army won’t allow a guilty plea in a capital case and the prosecutors won’t waive the death penalty.</p>
<p>Since there is no question that Hasan did the shooting, the lawyers tasked with defending him must bring forward evidence of his mental state---a complete defense if he’s legally insane or a mitigating circumstance if he’s sane. Understandably, Hasan does not wish to litigate his mental state, so he fired his lawyers.</p>
<p>Today, Hasan informed the new and more goal-directed judge that he wished to raise “defense of third parties.” What third parties? Mullah Omar and the rest of the Taliban.</p>
<p>This will not fly because the soldiers murdered were not about to harm Mullah Omar, among many other reasons. Nidal Hasan is stretching for some way to put the Afghanistan war on trial, since the force he was allegedly defending against would have to be “unlawful.”</p>
<p>US soldiers are taught that they must refuse unlawful orders, and I remember no war in my lifetime when somebody did not refuse deployment for the purpose of making a court rule on the legality. They lost, but they got to make the argument. I don’t think you can raise that argument as a justification for shooting fellow soldiers.</p>
<p>I understand why we generally don’t let people plead guilty in a death penalty case. We want to see the evidence. We don’t want innocent persons executed even if they volunteer to save guilty persons. In the Hasan case, that can’t happen.</p>
<p>Not accepting his guilty plea turns the “trial” into a slow motion guilty plea, a political circus.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Army has categorized the shootings as “workplace violence” rather than terrorism. There are substantial benefits for the families of soldiers killed or wounded in combat. These benefits are not available to the soldiers who signed up to fight the “war on terror” and then got shot by a turncoat whose stated purpose was to protect the enemy from his fellow soldiers on the instructions of a radical imam who has repeatedly called killing Americans a religious duty.</p>
<p>Had my son been in the SRP that day, I would have to sue the Army for the good of my daughter in law and my grandchildren. Because he wasn’t, I’m just another opinion from the cheap seats when I say that respect for the law is the right way, but denying benefits to the victims’ families is the wrong way, and this entire process is making a mockery of the Army way.</p>
<p><span><em>Steve Russell, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a Texas trial court judge by assignment and associate professor emeritus of criminal justice at Indiana University-Bloomington. He lives in Georgetown, Texas.</em></span><br /> </p>
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<div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Short title:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Fort Hood Shooter Trial</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/circle-violence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Circle of violence</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/crime" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Crime</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/veterans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Veterans</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-full-name field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Full name:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Steve Russell</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/steve-russell" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Steve Russell</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/us-army" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">U.S. Army</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/iraq" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Iraq</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/nidal-malik-hasan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Nidal Malik Hasan</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/ft-hood" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Ft. Hood</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/fort-hood" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Fort Hood</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/anwar-al-awlaki" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Anwar al-Awlaki</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/canada" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Barack Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/umar-farouk-abdulmutallab" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/al-qaeda" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">al Qaeda</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/underwear-bomber" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Underwear Bomber</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/cia" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">CIA</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/boston-marathon" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">boston marathon</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author-image field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Author image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/author/steve-russell" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Steve Russell</a></div></div></div>Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:00:56 +0000mazecyrus149856 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/12/unfriendly-fire-fort-hood-shooter-trial#commentsSpokane Tribe Hero Is Honorary Grand Marshal for Torchlight Paradehttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/05/spokane-tribe-hero-honorary-grand-marshal-torchlight-parade-149719
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Spokane Tribal Member Sergeant First Class Michael Sebastian received the Bronze Star Medal for “exceptionally meritorious service” while serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq between September 2010 and September 2011.</p></div></div></div>Wed, 05 Jun 2013 11:30:33 +0000mlarson149719 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/05/spokane-tribe-hero-honorary-grand-marshal-torchlight-parade-149719#commentsAll Gave Some, Some Gave All: Remembering Those Who Have Fallenhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/05/27/all-gave-some-some-gave-all-remembering-those-who-have-fallen-149553
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>On Memorial Day we honor and remember those service members who have fallen. As of May 24, 2013, the U.S.</p></div></div></div>Mon, 27 May 2013 12:18:27 +0000mlarson149553 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/05/27/all-gave-some-some-gave-all-remembering-those-who-have-fallen-149553#commentsPhotos: Remembering the First Known Pow Wow Held in a U.S. Combat Zone by Native Americanshttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/03/13/photos-remembering-first-known-pow-wow-held-us-combat-zone-native-americans-148144
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>In 2004, U.S. Army Sergeant Debra Mooney, Choctaw, and the 120th Engineer Combat Battalion staged the first pow wow held in a U.S. combat zone by Native Americans.</p></div></div></div>Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:37:32 +0000mlarson148144 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/03/13/photos-remembering-first-known-pow-wow-held-us-combat-zone-native-americans-148144#commentsNavajo President Ben Shelly Orders Navajo Flag Lowered to Commemorate a Navajo Marinehttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/02/26/navajo-president-ben-shelly-orders-navajo-flag-lowered-commemorate-navajo-marine-147895
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly announced February 25 the loss of a Navajo warrior who was serving with the U.S. Marine Corps in Afghanistan.</p></div></div></div>Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:53:22 +0000mlarson147895 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/02/26/navajo-president-ben-shelly-orders-navajo-flag-lowered-commemorate-navajo-marine-147895#commentsCherokee Nation Honors Iraq War, Vietnam War and Korean War Veteranshttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/02/14/cherokee-nation-honors-iraq-war-vietnam-war-and-korean-war-veterans-147667
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Three veterans received the Cherokee Medal of Patriotism at the February 11 Cherokee Nation Tribal Council meeting in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Honored were vets who had served in Iraq, Vietnam and Korea.</p></div></div></div>Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:45:40 +0000mlarson147667 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/02/14/cherokee-nation-honors-iraq-war-vietnam-war-and-korean-war-veterans-147667#commentsWounded Knee 122 Years Later: What Has Changed, Here and Abroad?http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/12/31/wounded-knee-122-years-later-what-has-changed-here-and-abroad
<fieldset class="field-group-fieldset group-opinions-body form-wrapper" id="node_opinion_rss_group_opinions_body"><legend><span class="fieldset-legend">Body</span></legend><div class="fieldset-wrapper"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">December 29</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;"> marks the 122</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:10px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:super;background-color:transparent;">nd</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;"> anniversary of the Massacre at Wounded Knee. It is a story that remains fresh in the lives of many indigenous peoples across America. Each generation is taught to never forget. </span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">In 1891, reviewing the history leading up to the massacre, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Thomas Morgan said, </span><br /> </p>
<p dir="ltr" style="margin:0pt 36pt;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">“It is hard to overestimate the magnitude of the calamity which happened to the Sioux people by the sudden disappearance of the buffalo. The boundless range was to be abandoned for the circumscribed reservation, and abundance of plenty to be supplanted by limited and decreasing government subsistence and supplies. Under these circumstances it is not in human nature not to be discontented and restless, even turbulent and violent.” </span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">Commissioner Morgan was not empathetic about the plight of the indigenous people. He was just stating facts. One year prior to the massacre, in Oct 1889, he issued a policy paper stating his convictions regarding the native population. </span><br /> </p>
<p dir="ltr" style="margin:0pt 36pt;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">“The Indians must conform to "the white man’s ways," peaceably if they will, forcibly if they must. They must adjust themselves to their environment, and conform their mode of living substantially to our civilization. This civilization may not be the best possible, but it is the best the Indians can get. They cannot escape it, and must either conform to it or be crushed by it. The tribal relations should be broken up, socialism destroyed, and the family and the autonomy of the individual substituted.”</span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">The Wounded Knee Massacre is still commonly depicted as a “battle” that no one can be blamed for, but if blame is assigned it is always made clear that a Lakota fired the first shot. This is the justification for all that followed. A century after the murders, Congress issued an apology, expressing “deep regret” for the events on that day in 1890 when upwards of 370 men, women, and children were gunned down as they fled for their lives. But the Wounded Knee Massacre was not an anomaly, nor was it an accident. Wounded Knee is the entire history of indigenous peoples relationship with Imperialism made manifest in a single event. </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr" style="margin:0pt 36pt;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">“I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.” Black Elk.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">The descendants of the victims commemorate the massacre in order to honor those who have fallen and to foster healing of their still devastated communities. The decsendants of the perpetrators ignore inflicting the wound and the wound festers.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">From Wounded Knee, where just days after the massacre a young newspaper editor named Frank Baum (later to become famous for the children’s story <em>The Wizard of Oz</em>) opined, “The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth.“ </span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">To Vietnam, where Lyndon Johnson’s call to win hearts and minds of the civilian population was corrupted by GI’s to, "When you have them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow." </span></span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">To Iraq, where Madeline Albright was asked if the deaths of ½ million children during sanctions was worth it, she replied "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it." </span></span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">To Gaza, where Dov Weisglass said, “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.” </span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">To Iran where a new sanctions regime is in place and the state department claims, “The sanctions are beginning to bite,” and dozens of places in between, the wound festers. </span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">In each case, the power with the superior military claims that the occupied and oppressed are dangerous and threaten the very existence of the state, even as the state starves the population, restricts their every move and denies them the most basic rights under the guise of “security”. All attempts by the “enemy” to seek peace are ignored or derided as “lies” while the theft of land and/or resources continue unabated. Each time the oppressed demand their rights or dare to strike back against their oppressors, the oppressor claims that the people are motivated by hate and seek the annihilation of the state. Negotiations are viewed as a sign of weakness and are rarely pursued unless they can be used as a tool to further oppression. The oppressors continually talk about “pursuing peace” as they systematically destroy any and all opposition. </span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">We kill by starvation, we kill by denying medicine, and we kill by isolation. When that doesn’t silence dissent of the “malcontents” we do not hesitate to kill with bullets and bombs. Remember Commissioner Morgan’s words, “This civilization may not be the best possible, but it is the best they can get. They cannot escape it, and must either conform to it or be crushed by it.” </span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">One day we too will be crushed by this flawed concept of civilization.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">The Dahiya doctrine is a military strategy in which the Israeli army deliberately targets civilian infrastructure as a means of inducing suffering on the civilian population, making it so difficult to survive that fighting back or resisting occupation are no longer practical, thereby establishing deterrence. The doctrine is named after a southern suburb in Beirut with large apartment blocks. Israeli bombs flattened the entire neighborhood during the 2006 Lebanon War. But this doctrine is not a modern strategy for controlling populations. Nor is putting the people of Gaza on a “diet” new- subjugating an entire population through a combination of poverty, malnutrition, a struggle over limited resources, and violence is the American way, adopted by our closest allies, (and “the only democracy in the Middle East,” with the “most moral army in the world,”) the Israelis.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">December 27 marked the fourth</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;"> anniversary of the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, (the name derives from a popular Hannukah children’s song about a dreidel made from cast lead.) During this attack on Gaza, 1,417 people were killed (330 children), 4,336 were wounded. 6,400 homes were destroyed. Hospitals, mosques, the power plant, and the sewage system were deliberately targeted.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">Israel accuses Hamas of war crimes for shooting rockets without guidance systems indiscriminately into Israel. Israeli officials claim that “Hamas hides behind civilians” as a justification to bomb civilian population centers and infrastructure. Killing civilians in Gaza using precision munitions, is a war crime, no matter who is hiding behind them. </span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">After the recent killing of 20 children in a Newtown, Connecticut grade school, President Obama, wiping tears from his eyes said, </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr" style="margin:0pt 36pt;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">“This is our first task--caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged. And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we are meeting our obligations?“</span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">The just completed eight-day Israeli operation against Gaza called the Pillar of Cloud (The name is derived from a Biblical passage) saw three generations of the al-Dalu family wiped out in a single bombing, including 4 children between the ages of 1 and 7 years old. The surviving son does not speak of surrender, relinquishing the families land, or disappearing. He demands justice. His tears are mixed with fury. Can he be blamed? </span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">As the ceasefire went in to effect there was one consistent message from the people of Gaza. We are here. This is our home. We will never leave. They will have to kill every one of us.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">Upon cessation of the bombing, our Congress immediately voted to replenish Israel’s bombs and munitions in order for Israel to “protect itself." The wound festers.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">In his speech the president went on to say, </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr" style="margin:0pt 36pt;"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">“If there is even one step we can take to save another child, or another parent, or another town, from the grief that has visited Tucson, and Aurora, and Oak Creek, and Newtown, and communities from Columbine to Blacksburg before that -- then surely we have an obligation to try.” </span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Cambria;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">Wounded Knee has not disappeared. The Lakota people remain. Gaza has not disappeared. The Palestinian people remain. In Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia people grieve for the loss of their children. The violence wrought upon them in our name continues. If we can take one step to save another child, we have an obligation to try.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:rgb(53,53,53);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;">Johnny Barber is an activist, writer, and photographer who has spent considerable time in the Middle East witnessing the price every day people pay as a result of America's foreign policy. He seeks to share the voices of those who are marginalized and ignored in the mainstream media. His work can be seen at </span><a href="http://www.onebrightpearl.com/"><span style="color:rgb(31,72,192);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;"><u>www.oneBrightpearl.com</u></span></a><span style="color:rgb(53,53,53);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;"> and </span><a href="http://www.onebrightpearl-jb.blogspot.com/"><span style="color:rgb(31,72,192);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;"><u>www.oneBrightpearl-jb.blogspot.com</u></span></a><span style="color:rgb(53,53,53);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:16px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;"> </span></p>
<p> </p>
</div></div></div></div></fieldset>
<div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Short title:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wounded Knee 122 Years Later</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-category field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Category:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/circle-violence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Circle of violence</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/history" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">History</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Politics</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-full-name field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Full name:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Johnny Barber</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/thomas-morgan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Thomas Morgan</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/johnny-barber" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Johnny Barber</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/wounded-knee" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Wounded Knee</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/bono-mack" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sioux</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/black-elk" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Black Elk</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/wizard-oz" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">The Wizard of Oz</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/frank-baum" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Frank Baum</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/madeline-albright" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Madeline Albright</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/vietnam" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Vietnam</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/lyndon-johnson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lyndon Johnson</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/iraq" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Iraq</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/iran" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Iran</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/hamas" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hamas</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/gaza" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Gaza</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/tags/newtown" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Newtown</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/tags/columbine" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Columbine</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author-image field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Author image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/author/johnny-barber" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Johnny Barber</a></div></div></div>Mon, 31 Dec 2012 12:00:07 +0000mazecyrus146638 at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.comhttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/12/31/wounded-knee-122-years-later-what-has-changed-here-and-abroad#comments